President Obama set to unveil new gun plan

President Barack Obama’s wide-ranging gun control plan to be unveiled midday Wednesday is already under attack by the National Rifle Association, which is hoping to keep Congress solidly opposed to any of what the White House is proposing.

But the pushback — a new NRA video ad dubbing Obama an “elitist hypocrite” for allowing armed Secret Service security for his daughters while not embracing the gun group’s proposal for armed security in every school — is already under attack itself, in another sign of the divisiveness of the issue that the president is set to make central to his agenda as he begins a second term.

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Haberman explains gun control debate

“Are the president’s kids more important than yours?” the NRA ad’s narrator asks. “Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their schools? Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he’s just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security.”

Wednesday’s White House event marks Obama’s formal entry into the gun control arena. He will announce a push for bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, a requirement that all gun purchasers pass federal background checks and a new law against gun trafficking. None of these proposals appear to have any support among Republicans who control the House.

While gun control groups have secured meetings with House GOP leadership, no senior House Republican has spoken out in favor of any new gun control measures. And some conservative Senate Democrats have indicated an uneasiness with Obama’s proposals as word of them leaked out ahead of the official announcement. Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota each suggested Obama’s far-reaching prohibitions may be going too far.

And already one congressman, Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas), has called for Obama’s impeachment to protest the executive orders through which Obama has promised to act on gun control.

The NRA ad is just the beginning of what will be a fierce and sustained pushback from pro-gun forces against any changes to the nation’s gun laws. Gun control was a fight Obama didn’t want, didn’t expect and, until the school massacre at Newtown, Conn., last month, didn’t plan to make and had essentially never planned for.

But the deaths of 20 first-grade students and six adults at the hands of an armed killer changed the calculus for Obama, who called the day of the shooting the worst of his presidency.

Obama’s gun control proposal, which has not been discussed in detail by the White House until now, will be part of a package that will also include a call for universal background checks for all new gun purchases, as well as new bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, according to a person who was in the room for a preview presentation to gun control advocates Tuesday night.